


we'll be flying through the streets

by ohmygodwhy



Series: hella criminal au [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Criminals, F/M, Idiots in Love, M/M, hades learned to be a good dad just not here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-21
Updated: 2015-10-21
Packaged: 2018-04-27 11:40:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5047135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmygodwhy/pseuds/ohmygodwhy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“He’s gone.” he says quietly after a moment, after he’s gathered his breath and choked it back down and pulled himself together, and he can't keep the bitter out of his voice, “He saw me, and walked away.” </p>
<p>And then there are two pairs of eyes on him and a caring that he still isn’t used to yet and Piper wraps an arm around his and Jason’s arm pulls him tighter against him in a silent sort of comfort. </p>
<p>None of them have had the best luck with fathers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	we'll be flying through the streets

**Author's Note:**

> so i was thinking about this au the other day and ??? it happens 
> 
> also this is fits into my jason/nico/piper criminal-y au bc i needed some nico and piper and also _criminal aus man_

 

They run into his father in DC. 

He wanted to show them the Washington Monument, see— he hadn’t been there or anywhere in the state since he was a kid, back when Bianca was alive and Mother was alive and they were a family, and the three of them have already been to the California beaches and the Grand Canyon and the Space Needle, zigzagged back and forth across the country however they pleased, and they’d never been in DC before and he kinda wanted to see it again and they were pretty excited so. 

So here they were. And here he was. 

He doesn’t notice him at first. Jason is smiling and has an arm draped over his shoulder as the two of them stand in front of the statues and huge slabs of stone and Piper is also smiling and taking probably too many pictures with her hair down and blown across her face because she’s given up on keeping it tucked behind her ears by now. Nico is smiling too, very much, much more than he had been when they found him in that New York alley, and he is relaxed and happy and it’s during the click and snap of another picture that he looks out at the crowd and— and sees him. 

It’s been over five years now, he thinks, but his father looks almost exactly the same: dark hair, high cheekbones, even darker eyes and pale skin and a presence that makes people part when he walks through crowds (Hades is really an appropriate name; he wonders what his parents were thinking when they named their child after the king of the Underworld).

And there is a split second where everything slows to a stop; his father meets his eyes from across the sea of people and he counts two beats before there is a spark of recognition that nearly makes his heart stop. His father looks him up and down (and okay he doesn’t look like the classiest person on earth right now, with his worn out jeans and messy hairy and his too-big jacket that is actually Jason’s because it’s nearly winter again and it’s cold, and he wonders what his father sees, wonders how he looks under the arm of a smiling blond boy and a smiling pretty girl, wonders if he looks out of place or right at home and he wonders if his father has ever thought of him at all since he left), and looks him in the eye again with an expression he can’t read and then he is gone, he turns around and continues on his way like he isn’t seeing the son he practically chased out with silence for the first time in years. 

And it stings. He shouldn’t care, _knows_ Father doesn’t care, convinced himself long ago that he _doesn’t care about that man_ , but it still _stings,_ it really does, because. 

Because. 

“Nico?” 

Piper’s voice is sweet and careful and grounding and he is embarrassed to admit that she is the expert on dealing with nightmares, with his nightmares, with nightmares Jason has sometimes about whatever happened at that military camp he never talks about or about the sister he thinks might be dead, and he is very bad at helping her with her nightmares, with her sad memories of a dad that cares more about his career than about her, but he tries to help anyway because he hates seeing her sad, she doesn’t deserve to be sad. 

“What?” he says absently, still searching the crowd for the dot of black.

“Are you okay?” And there is a soft concern there that makes him look at her, camera forgotten in her hand, much closer than before “Did you see someone?” 

He considers lying, _no I just thought I did it’s not important let’s keep going_ , and forgetting about it, but the look on Jason’s face and the fact that they always seem to know whether or not he’s telling the truth convinces him otherwise. 

“I… yeah. I thought,” he pauses, nervous, anxious, “I thought I saw my father.” 

And then there are two little inhales and two heads glancing up and around and a bout of silence because he’s told them about him, bit by bit and night by night because it’s hard to get him to talk about things he doesn’t want to talk about but they someone manage to anyways— Jason got him to ride the ferris wheel at that circus one time with just a pout, and Piper had elbowed him and said he was getting soft and he sort of agreed with her. 

“He’s gone.” he says quietly after a moment, after he’s gathered his breath and choked it back down and pulled himself together, and he can't keep the bitter out of his voice, “He saw me, and walked away.” 

And then there are two pairs of eyes on him and a caring that he still isn’t used to yet and Piper wraps an arm around his and Jason’s arm pulls him tighter against him in a silent sort of comfort. 

None of them have had the best luck with fathers. 

Piper’s warmth is gone a moment later, and she shoots them a small ‘be right back’ and that little smile that always means she’s going to do something very bad or very sneaky and promises something very good, and then she’s gone too, twisting through the tourists. 

When she comes back around ten minutes later (they haven’t moved- they have no doubt Piper could find them if they did, but Nico’s not really up for moving and Jason is very warm and the air around them is very not), that smile has doubled in size, one arm tauntingly behind her back and she draws up to her full height and says,

“Your dad has a nice taste in suits.” 

Nico blinks a few times to make sure he heard her right and she flashes _that smile_ again and Jason’s eyebrows arch up in surprised question. 

“I thought I’d introduce myself. He was pretty easy to find- I can sorta see the family resemblance. You have the same eyes and hair, but it stops there. He’s actually kind of an asshole.” She shrugs nonchalantly and dangles a car key from the hand behind her back, “So I thought: he doesn’t really _need_ a car that big.” 

Nico blinks again and Jason laughs and Piper smiles a softer kind of smile and put the silver key in his hands with reverence like it’s the key to the goddamn white house, and he looks up at this person and thinks: she just stole my father’s car keys. 

And also thinks: I love her. 

And Jason holds him a little closer and Nico thinks: And I love him. 

And later, after they slip into the parking lot and into the sleek black car that his father really _doesn’t_ need if there’s only one of him, and Jason (Nico’s hands are shaking- from the rush of taking his _father’s_ stupid car or the anxiety of taking his fathers’s _expensive_ car, he isn’t sure- a little too much to drive without crashing) takes the wheel and they turn onto the freeway, windows down and music up and countless options flowing through his mind (they’ll stop somewhere tomorrow and screw on a different license plate and maybe they’ll keep the car long enough to give Hazel a ride around and maybe after it’s all worn out and the gas milage is way too high they can leave it waiting for his father out on his driveway as a thank you gift), he thinks: And they love me too. 

And it’s such an odd thought, such an odd feeling he still hasn’t gotten used to again, and it makes him feel warm and _happy._   

And he laughs, because hey, they just stole his dad’s car. 

  


End file.
